User Reviews

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by
Tony
a Cross Country Rider
from LONDON<UK

Date Reviewed: November 24, 2010

Strengths: Have had these on my Ti framed Lightspeed since build up in 2001.Over 6k miles,lots of winter abuse,1X 35mph crash which put me in hospital 3 days! No buckles still going strong.Only just fitted replacement chain/cassette!!

If you can afford this one off purchase go for it.I give my bike some abuse in all weathers,i weigh about 100kg and the wheels,gears,whole bike has not missed a beat in over 6000 miles of demanding riding.

Weaknesses: Very deep rim, requires long stems (and I am finding out that these stems are rim specific); only accepts two models of cassettes.

Bottom Line:

These are good wheels so far, not a mm out of true after a year. I tried FSA wheels and they popped a spoke after 12 miles, no joke. These have yet to give any problems at all. The weight to strength ratio is worth the peace of mind of having a well made set of wheels.

Submitted by
Old Proflexer
a Cross Country Rider
from Sunny Southern California

Date Reviewed: May 26, 2003

Strengths: very solid performer, strong spokes and heavy duty rims -

Weaknesses: a tad bit heavy when compared to other cross country disc wheelsets. deep 'V' rim sometimes will require the use of a (supplied) valve extender to pump air in the tires but i've had no problems at all. will only accept certain 9 speed cogsets from shimano.

Bottom Line:

got these on sale at a supergo store a ways back and was going to build them up on what was my current 8 speed setup - the sales guy assured me all 8 speed stuff would fit, but it didn't.

fortunately i was wearing out my current gearing and was ready to move to 9. the rear 959 hubs will only accept certain shimano 9 speed cassettes - the support bars on the internal backing of the 8's and other cassettes interfer with the spoke supports on the hubs as the cassette 'insets' under the hub body about 1/8" when properly installed. the proper compatable information is supplied in the documentation with the wheels.

these wheels are strong, eye catching and the internals on the hubs are typical high quality shimano. the spoke count is low but the gauge of the spokes compensates for the lack of numbers - each spoke crosses over and attaches to the opposite outside of the rim, as opposed to the conventional method. the engineers must have thought this thing through as the wheels are solid performers. all the necessary goodies are supplied with the wheels such as valve extenders for the deep 'v' rim, disc mounting screws (torx head), spoke tuning wrenches, individual bags for carrying the rims etc.

i've had no problem mounting tires on the rims - at least the one's i've been using lately.

i would have never paid full pop for these and would have settled for something different but, on sale - couldn't pass them up.

retail price makes them out of reach of the average mtb'er so i'd take away a little on value but love the wheels.

These wheels are disc only. The wheels are built around XTR level hubs and a deep aero rim with spoke holes drilled at the sides (where one normally finds rim brake tracks) instead of the inside face of the rim. The sixteen (on each wheel) 13 gauge bladed spokes are mounted so that the spoke bends into the rim with the nipples mounted on the hub on flanges. The spokes also cross over, that is a spoke mounted on the left side of the hub will terminate on the right side of the rim. This structural novelty allows Shimano to use fewer spokes. The rim labels are low key for an attention grabbing wheelset. The front wheel comes with it's own disc brake bolts that you MUST use. The wheelset comes with skewers, special truing wrenches, black nylon wheelbags, thorough instructions and the requisite lawyer labels.

These wheels don't feel any different than a conventional wheel. They'll do anything an XC wheelset is expected to do (although Shimano calls 'em "Freeride", but I don't know abt that!). There is no more flex than what is normally associated with a light set of hoops. All the performance of "normal" wheels for half the spoke count! The heavy rim takes all the reasonable punishment you can give it AND helps conserve angular momentum. BTW: Mine have yet to go out of true after abt 3-4 months of use.

Weight weenies beware! These wheels are abt 1/4# (100 grams) heavier than Chris King/317 or Crossmax discs. Tires are also a bear to mount.

Value: 1 Chili for this spendy wheelset.However, I give them 4 Fiery Ones overall. I docked one chili because they are heavier than competing wheelsets.